Are the New England Patriots and New York Giants on a collision course with the NFL playoffs fast approaching?
If they are, it might not sit well with the Patriots, if we’re to believe Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz.
“They don’t want to see us,” Cruz told the New York Daily News this week. “I’m sure if you ask them (they’d say) they’d play anybody, they don’t care. I’m sure they don’t want to see us. That’s for sure.”
The Patriots have won four Super Bowls in the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era, but they’ve also lost in the big game twice. Both of those losses came at the hands of the Giants, first in the 2007 season and then during the 2011 campaign.
“Oh man, you can’t even put it into words almost,” Cruz said, according to the Daily News, of a possible third Super Bowl matchup with New England. “For it to be round three, us and them in another epic Super Bowl showdown. It’d be for all the marbles. The third time is when, I mean they’ll have a lot riding on it, we will have a lot riding on it. It’ll just be one of those moments you (couldn’t) forget.”
Both of the previous Patriots-Giants Super Bowl matchups came down to the wire and featured iconic moments that most New England fans would rather forget. The first showdown — Super Bowl XLII in Arizona — was especially painful for Pats supporters, as it came on the heels of an undefeated regular season. New England thus finished 18-1 rather than a perfect 19-0.
The Patriots had an opportunity to exact revenge in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, but Eli Manning again guided the Giants down the field late in the fourth quarter for a game-winning score. Manning was named Super Bowl MVP for the second time and a rare AFC-NFC rivalry kicked up a notch.
“I think just because of our history, no matter when or how we play them, no matter if it’s regular season, preseason, postseason, there’s an energy there. There’s a rivalry-style energy there,” Cruz, who played in the second Super Bowl matchup, told the New York Daily News. “When you play a team twice in the Super Bowl, once when they were undefeated, the second when they were pretty darn good, we beat them both times and that’s going to live forever. But it’s definitely a rivalry.”
Perhaps the rivalry will be renewed in a few short weeks at Super Bowl LI in Houston, as both teams already have punched their tickets to the postseason.
Thumbnail photo via Scott R. Galvin/USA TODAY Sports Images
